The Daily times. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1886-1889, 1887-02-09
THE SOIL OF WYOMING.
Tho Land Cut by Clutches aud "Draws."
The Valleys and Bottoms"

East Nebraska is prairie: west Nebraska,
with its alkali streams and sand hills, begins
to take somewhat OF the character OF this
country, with its strange uncvenness But
in Wyoming we reach the contamination OF
roughness in what may have once been
prairie. To he sure, as we look from a car
window, if in the spring, we may see the
strange munument-like sandstonos and the
crater-like knobs about a plain" 50 seems it,
OF thousands Of acres of verdurc. The land,
as a rule, is an alkali, soft limestone and sand
stone formation the home Of the nutritious
buffalo grass and ssgebrush. Attempt to
ride across one of the plains and you find how
great the disparity. The land is cut IN every
conceivable direction by abrupt gulches and
draws with perpendicular sides from thirty
TO one hundred feet deep, entirely concealed
by their character until you are right upon
them.
There is no water i'm these in this season.
They usually follow the natural watershed,
but head anywhere and everywhere upon the
plain, and, strangest Of all are rs deep and
abrupt IN their head as anywhere. You find
the valleys but a repetition OF what YOU see
on a larger scale from a point of emiaence-
an apparent plain, and yonder crater-like
bluff-but upon ascending It's steep side You
are surprised 10 find its summit but the
boundary of another plateau, with gulches
deeper and wider l spoke Of valleys a
moment ago; this country has none after the
fashion Of any eastern conceptions. The
streams are few and far between, usually
from twelve TO twenty miles and more, and
then the merest rivulets, at this season, after
sinking for miles in their course, and Occa-
sOnally breaking out spring-like and flowing
a short distance. These rivulets have narrow
Bottoms often quite fertile, but scarcely
more than garden spots, with few scrubby
cOttonwoods and box-elders, entirely hidden
from view by the proximity Of the neighbor
ing bluffs When wider and more like val
leys, as is the bottom of the Platte they are
too sandy for cultivation 1t is only by
irrigation that even the bottoms are made
productive. 1t is along these bottoms that
the cattle have been accustomed 10 water and
that the ranches have been built. All this
beautiful country to look upon is utterly be-
yond the reach of the plow or any agricul-
tural crop, and is only saved from utter
desert by the spring rains, which grow the
grass III a short month or so.
Just break the sod for any purpose and the
soil is the sport of the winds The only pos
sible hope would be in artesian wells, but
they could not be reached for thousands of
feet, and possibly not then, without great
expense, but with success probably scarce
enough TO supply man and beast. There are
at present four ways by which men can ac-
quire land in the territory homestead GG0
acres, pre- emption 900, timber culture 400
and desert retaining $40. Now none Of
these rights can be exercised except along the
streams and then the very loosest construc-
ton must be made of the conditions apple
able only TO an uhbroken prairie. Wyomiug
Letter in Detroit Free Press